Hillary Clinton Just Did Something None of Her Rivals Have Done [View all]

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A great plan that helps coal miners who have lost their jobs and their families.


http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/11/hillary-clinton-coal-country-economy-climate



Hillary Clinton Just Did Something None of Her Rivals Have Done
She wants to fill a gap in Obama's legacy.

—By Tim McDonnell
Thu Nov. 12, 2015 11:00 AM EST


JStone/Shutterstock

One thing every Republican presidential candidate can agree on is that they hate President Barack Obama's plan to tackle climate change. Now Hillary Clinton might have a way to remedy one of their biggest concerns.

During Tuesday's GOP primary debate, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said that his first action as president would be to repeal the "Clean Power Act." (It's actually the Clean Power Plan—it's a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations, not its own law.) The centerpiece of Obama's climate agenda, the new rules aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by a third by 2030, largely by requiring states to reduce their dependence on coal-fired power plants. .................


.................In fact, neither Paul nor any of his presidential opponents (including Democrats Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley) have laid out what they would do as president to smooth the transition for coal communities as the market for our dirtiest form of energy rapidly shrinks.


Today Clinton produced her own $30 billion plan, which would use a smattering of tax incentives and grant funding to support public health, education, and entrepreneurial initiatives in coal communities from Appalachia to Wyoming.
Clinton's $30 billion plan aims to save the coal country economy by pouring money into infrastructure and public health projects.

You can read the full plan here. It follows the lead of a similar but much smaller initiative Obama rolled out last month. Much of it is targeted at rebuilding infrastructure—highways, bridges, railroads, broadband networks. The Clinton campaign says that kind of development would not only create new jobs to replace those lost in the coal industry, but be vital for growing new industries.

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